Years back, when I launched BridgeURL.com as a way for users to share multiple links with one URL, I saw it becoming really popular with freelancers and PR professionals.
For instance, every conversation between a client and a designer starts with the former asking for the latter’s portfolio. What better way to do it than with a BridgeURL link that, back then, used to display all the various links in a slideshow format.
I also expected PR professionals who wanted to share their media wins with their clients with BridgeURL.
Neither of this happened.
Instead, BridgeURL became extremely popular among gamers. So, apparently, there is a whole ecosystem of gaming servers trying to outrank each other on various directory sites. And my biggest chunk of traffic comes from these servers getting their players to vote for their servers across various listing pages.
This is of course, just one of the many use-cases I have found people use BridgeURL for. But the point here is that I had gotten my product-market fit quite wrong when I first built the site.
The reason I am writing about that today is because I am once again at a similar juncture. I have got a site built as a way for users to easily share spreadsheets online, but I really don’t know who is going to use this product.
Yeah, I know that’s not very smart of me. But I went in knowing this – I like to build products and then figuring out how to market them (probably explains why most of my launches fail!).
Right now, I have been seeding it in my own conversations with clients and partners. Anytime I have to share an update regarding our partnerships, I send them a QuickXLS link. I’m trying to see if this will trigger usage. Hasn’t happened so far.
I also tried spamming a few Twitter conversations with my link. One person actually ‘liked’ my tweet, but don’t really think he even opened my link.
I don’t expect anyone to be reading this blog post, but in case you do – who do you think I should be marketing this to? Please do post a comment.
